How Myles Smith turned five years of therapy notes into a debut album

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The day before I speak to Myles Smith, the singer posts a message on Instagram.

The release of his debut album, My Mess, My Heart, My Life, is being delayed by a week.

Smith’s reasoning is strikingly honest. After years of touring and “constantly moving”, he says he was close to burning out and wanted to make sure he could fully appreciate the moment he had spent years working towards.

In many ways, the decision reflects the album itself.

Built in part from five years of therapy notes, the album finds Smith revisiting moments of struggle, recovery and, as he puts it, “all the sort of messes in between”.

And it arrives after a whirlwind few years for Smith.

At 28, the Luton born singer-songwriter has become one of Britain’s biggest breakthrough artists in recent years.

Blending folk-infused pop songs with anthemic choruses, he has built a reputation for emotionally open songwriting.

“Take my heart, don’t break it, love me to my bones,” he sings on 2024 hit Stargazing, a plea for connection that went on to become the best-selling British song of that year.

Since then, Smith has won the Brits rising star award, made the Time 100 list of influential people, and amassed billions of streams.

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Yet for all the milestones, this debut album presents an artist less concerned with achievement and more focused on unpacking the experiences that shaped him pre-fame and turning them into a body of work.

“It was fun. It was intriguing. It was cathartic. It was a bit of everything, honestly,” Smith says of that process.

One of the album’s most candid moments comes on a track called Sertraline.

Named after the antidepressant medication, the song tackles mental health and masculinity.

Smith is thoughtful on the subject and is keen not to “hyperpolarise the issue”, but says it is important for him to be open about his own experiences.

“It’s really important in my role as a British artist, but not only as a British artist, as a black male in this space to be able to be vulnerable, to be able to be open on tracks.”

Growing up, he was inspired by artists such as Labrinth, who he calls an “early example of someone who looks like me and sounds like me and is open and expressive of his emotions”.

At the same time, Smith is wary of being treated as an exception.

“I don’t like to be seen as exceptional,” he says. “I’m reflective of such a beautiful culture with such a vast array of talents.”

Rather than viewing his success as unique, he hopes it can help create opportunities for others.

“If anything, it should be showing that there’s millions of Myles Smiths who exist, and hopefully now there’s more of a ladder and a pathway for that to be seen.”

For an artist whose music is built on emotional openness, it would be easy to assume that sharing personal stories comes naturally.

But Smith admits there are still some songs he writes purely for himself.

On Grandma’s Place, he turns his attention to family, childhood and loss, revisiting memories of a place he describes as a refuge growing up.

That song was so personal that, for a time, he was not convinced it would make the album.

“Sometimes I write songs like that and they just sit on a hard drive because they are for me,” he says. “But this one just felt super right.”

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Although My Mess, My Heart, My Life was pieced together across dressing rooms, hotel rooms, tour buses and studios over three years, Smith says he relied on a close-knit group of collaborators throughout the process.

Among them was producer Peter Fenn and songwriter Gabe Simon, who co-wrote Grandma’s Place.

“I only feel free and open when I’m with my friends,” he says.

Among those he now counts as friends is Niall Horan. The former One Direction star is the album’s only credited guest artist, appearing on Drive Safe.

But friendships with Horan and artists such as Ed Sheeran are rarely just about music.

“I feel like with Niall and Ed the friendship is really awesome because none of the conversations are ever really about work,” he says.

Those conversations have become increasingly valuable to Smith as his profile has grown.

“Ed said this comment to me one time: ‘As you get bigger, and as you get more famous, you don’t change, the people around you do.’

“To me, I’m still the same Myles I was three years ago, five years ago, 10 years ago,” he says.

While Smith may still see himself as the same person he was before the success arrived, the speed of his rise is hard to ignore.

In 2024, he took to the BBC Introducing stage at Radio 1’s Big Weekend in his hometown of Luton. Within a year, he had graduated to the festival’s main stage, returning again this year to a packed crowd in Sunderland and sharing the moment with Horan.

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But while much of My Mess, My Heart, My Life looks backwards, it does not stay there.

The latter part of the album moves towards something more hopeful.

Songs such as Nice To Meet You, Gold and Stay (If You Wanna Dance) shift the focus from reflection to optimism and being present in the moment.

“It was important to end the album, and particularly this project on a high,” he says.

“I feel like I always try to mirror my music with my live shows and my live shows are always about taking people on an emotional journey and then sending you home happy.”

It is that sense of hope which lingers on as Gold closes the album.

“Even though I may appear miserable for a lot of this album, I genuinely always walk with hope and I walk with joy at the end of the day,” he says.